Decision on Singapore-Malaysia railway land tax to be out soon

File photo of a KTM railway train in Singapore. A dispute between Singapore and Malaysia over a tax levied on parcels of former railway land will be resolved soon, with a decision by a London arbitration panel expected in a "few months". -- ST FILE PHOTO

By Walter Sim

A dispute between Singapore and Malaysia over a tax levied on parcels of former railway land will be resolved soon, with a decision by a London arbitration panel expected in a "few months".

The fee, which was reported by Malaysian business weekly The Edge Review as $1.4 billion, is a development charge payable to Singapore.

Malaysia is opposing the payment.

The issue follows from the resolution in 2010 of a 20-year impasse between the two countries over a Points of Agreement (POA) that was signed in 1990 by Singapore's then prime minister Lee Kuan Yew with Malaysia's then finance minister Daim Zainuddin.